NOFA-NY Field Notes

NOFA-NY Blog

Our blog is a great way to stay current on organic farming, gardening, certification, policy, and community information and issues that we regularly share. We help you stay on top of everything that relates to technical and practical organic farming and gardening, timely and important legislative policies, field days, conferences, consumer issues, and more.

We encourage you to follow our blog and leave a comment or follow-up question if you wish. To subscribe to the blog and receive notifications about new posts, click the envelope on the black bar below and enter your e-mail address.

"In the early morning mist you find your horses out on pasture. You are struck by how beautiful they are, but also surprised at how natural they are. Some are grazing, some are taking in the first rays of the sun, and still others stand on guard, watching for any threat; they are working like a wild band. It’s time for you to bring them into the barn to be harnessed for farming and forestry.

In the last 15 years of working with draft animals, I have discovered a connection between teaching the beginning teamster and training the green team. In some ways, they both need to learn the same things: how to communicate in a horse/human relationship. While the beginning teamster is not usually training the young untrained draft animal, all the skills and techniques applied to start an animal at work are derived from the best practices while working any team, even a very experienced one. What does it take to really understand our draft partners? What would make it safe for me to work with them? How would I begin to train a young horse or mule for work? We will discuss all of this and more at my NOFA-NY Winter Conference workshop."

P.S. If you want a special opportunity to drive horses and mules with Donn, then bid on his offering at our online holiday auction here by 11:58 pm this Sunday, December 10th. The value is $200, and the current high bid is way under! Click here to bid!